Scars
by You'veGotMeAndJesus
Summary: Eli helps someone out that you wouldn't expect. When he does, he lets him know that he doesn't have to hide his scars. Based off the song "Scars" by Jonny Diaz. I highly recommend you listen to it. It's a beautiful song.
1. Chapter 1

***Author's note: Hey, guys! This story is going to be a little different than my other stories. I surprised even myself when I was writing this. This wasn't at all where I was planning on going with this story. I had the title in my head for a while, and I had a concept, but when I started writing, that concept got thrown out the window. Hope you enjoy this! ~You'veGotMeAndJesus**

Chapter One: Cam's P.O.V

I want out. I just want out. I can't take it here anymore. I don't like pretending to be something I'm not. Campbell Saunders. Who is that? Everyone else thinks they know who I am. Dallas thinks I'm the next NHL star, Maya thinks I'm something special for some reason—Let me tell you. If she knew who I really was, or why I was really here, she wouldn't think that.—and my teachers think that the only reason I'm not getting As in school is because I have a lot of pressure on me from the hockey team. Everyone thinks they know who I am and that they can pinpoint all my problems at the source. Well I have news for them…they can't! No one can! I'm hopeless. Always have been, and always will be.

That's why I'm in this mess. I have never lived up to anyone's expectations of me. I was expected to be a normal kid. I was expected to eat my breakfast in the morning and go to school, not turn down an alley a block away. I was expected to bring friends over to play video games and read comic books, not meet people on a side street at night and get high at the age of twelve. When my mother was hard at work practically 24/7, she expected me to hang out and watch T.V and eat junk food. And she expected me to hear the sound of gunshots on Call of Duty, not five feet away from me.

So do you think you know Campbell Saunders? I can honestly tell you that you have no idea who Campbell Saunders is. You never can and you never will. Want to know why? Because Campbell Saunders doesn't exist.


	2. Chapter 2

***Author's note: Okay, that was a little bit crazy right? Like I said, I never dreamed of writing that when I came up with my concept. It just kind of came out. I know a lot of people were suspiscious about Cam, and I kind of am too, so I just decided dig something out of my imagination and run with it. I'll let you continue reading the story now. Thanks! :) ***

Chapter Two: Cam's P.O.V

I bet I just threw all of you for a huge loop, didn't I? Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jordan Cunningham and I'm from The Bronx, New York. My life wasn't always like this. I used to be a happy kid, but all my problems started happening when I was twelve. Or, I guess you could say that was when I took notice of my problems.

You see, I thought everything was okay. Mom was working two jobs and Dad had one. Sure it wasn't perfect, but I thought that as long as we made enough money to put food on the table, everything was fine. The problem was that with the three jobs alone, we didn't have enough. It wasn't until a week after my twelfth birthday when my father was murdered that I found out where the extra money came from.

Apparently, Dad was a "salesman" on the side, if you know what I mean. He went to try to get out of the business when he was shot. Apparently when the drugs don't get sold, people don't get to live.

Turns out these drug dealers were smarter than I thought. Somehow, they found out that the guy they shot to death had a son. I was on my way to school one day when they pulled me aside and explained how my life would be from then on. They admitted to killing my father and said that they'd do the same to me if I didn't join them, or if I ratted them out to the cops.

So, I accepted that as my new life. Mom went back to school so she could afford to support us, which forced her to be out of the house even more than before, and I could be found in back alleys or in shady shacks with a bag of white powder in my hands and money in my pockets. That was my life.

At that point, my thought process was that no one was getting hurt and everything was fine. But then someone got hurt, and everything was far from fine. The cops were afraid the guys would come after me, too, since, as previously mentioned, I was five feet away from the gun. They thought being a Toronto Ice Hound was the perfect cover, so here I am. Actually, here is Campbell Saunders.

Now do you get it? Do you still think I'm crazy for wanting to jump off of this landing and plummet to my death?

Yeah…I thought so.

**I know it's not realistic that the best placement for him would be an Ice Hound, but I had to say something. Thanks for reading. More to come! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three: Cam's P.O.V.

Okay. I'm going to do this. I'm going to jump. One…two…th—crap!

Someone walked right underneath me. I couldn't tell who he was, but he was wearing all black. From all the information I've gathered about this school, I presume it to be Eli Goldsworthy.

It's okay. All I have to do is wait for him to leave. That won't be hard, right? I just have to stay quiet until he goes away. He's almost out the door now. As he opened the door, I let out an audible sound of relief. Unfortunately for me, the kid has ears like a freaking hawk!

Eli snapped his head up, looking for the source of the noise. After looking to the left, and the right, he finally made eye contact with me. "Hey! What are you doing up there?" he questioned.

Crap! Now I have to come up with something, and fast. Oh, who am I kidding? What kind of excuse can I possibly come up with for sitting on top of the stairwell? "Um…you know. I ah…like to think up here." I like to think up here? I slapped myself upside the head in my mind. Yeah, I'm screwed. There's no way he's buying that.

"Okay," he said after giving me a weird look. Wow! He actually bought that. He opened up the door once more and proceeded to walk out of the school.

That was a close one.

Okay. Back to business.

**Godly intervention, perhaps? Read to find out :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four: Eli's P.O.V

Well, that was weird. What kind of kid sits on landing to think? Not that I have any right to call anyone out on their weirdness, but something about that just doesn't feel right. As I walk through the Degrassi parking lot, I'm getting this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach. My thoughts are usually racing all the time, but at this moment, they are all set on one thing…_go back._ So that's what I did. It's a good thing I did too, because the moment I open the door, my heart stops. I see the kid I saw before, the one that was sitting on the railing, push himself off said railing and begin to plummet to the ground. I threw the door open and got there just in time to break the young boy's fall.

The impact knocked both of us to the ground. After he slowly got up off of me, I began to get up myself. I was planning on yelling at the kid, but then I saw his eyes. Tears were doing their best not to fall down his face, and he just had a look of pure defeat. He just looked like a sad little puppy. So I decided to take a much more gentle approach. "Cam, right?"

"Yeah," the kid responded. "Why did you come back? You weren't supposed to come back!" he shouted at me.

"What would you have done if I hadn't?" I asked.

"I would have…I would have…I—"

I cut him off. "You would have what, Campbell? If you can't even say it, then you have no business doing it," I explained, slightly louder than I'd anticipated.

That got him. "You don't know me! Don't act like you know me! No one does!" he exclaimed before he couldn't hold his tears in any longer.

"I'm sorry," I told him, awkwardly putting my hand on his shoulder as he began to choke back sobs. "Do you want to talk?"

"There's nothing to talk about. I'm tired of living like this, Eli! I just don't want to do it anymore," he told me.

"What's so wrong with your life?"

"What's wrong with my life? This isn't my life, that's what's wrong with my life," he explained with a dark chuckle. "I have no one who cares about me here!"

"That's not true. Don't you have a niner girlfriend? Maya, is it?" After he nodded his head yes, I continued. "And you have Tori, Tristan, and—"

Now it was his turn to interrupt me. "You don't get it, Eli. They don't know me. They know Campbell Saunders," he explained. "If Maya knew who I really was, she'd never want to be with me," he said dejectedly.

"Sorry,man. I'm not following," I told him honestly.

"Okay," he began after a very long and loud sigh. "If I tell you something, you have to swear on your life that you won't tell anyone. I shouldn't even tell you this, but I honestly don't care right now; I just want someone to understand."

"Of course not," I told him.

"Good. Let's get out of here."

**So what do you guys think of the Campbell/Eli friendship? It's not what you'd expect, but sometimes that's the best kind of relationship. Only a couple more chapters, guys. Thanks for reading and please review to tell me how I'm doing if you so desire. :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright. This is the last chapter, everyone. I enjoyed writing this story so much and I thank you all for reading it. I just hope that it touched all of you reading it the same way it touched me to write it. If this story helps even one lost soul, my duty is done. Thank you for being so supportive and I'll just let you read now. :)**

Chapter five: Eli's P.O.V

I took Campbell to my house and he spilled everything from my name's not Campbell Saunders to I'm in the witness protection program. He was right, he shouldn't have told me. Especially since it's illegal and everything. However, Campbell, I mean Jordan, can trust me with his life.

"Wow," was all I said at first.

"Yeah," he responded.

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever before he spoke again. "And there's something else," he said.

"Okay." This poor kid. What else could he possibly have to tell me?

A few seconds later, he rolled up his sleeves to reveal thin, once very deep gashes on his arms, undoubtedly from his skates. It was then that I decided to be super brave. I was going to let him in on a part of my life that Clare wasn't even aware of. After making my decision, I rolled up my sleeves as well. Both of us had tears in our eyes at this point.

"You too?" he choked out. "Why?"

"Because I killed my girlfriend."

"You what?"

I chuckled for a moment, remembering Clare's reaction when I told her the same thing. "That was Clare's reaction too." He gave me a quizzical, slightly amused look, and I continued. "We had an argument late one night. I said some things I shouldn't have said. She got really mad and rode her bike down the street. I tried to call out to her, to get her to come back. I knew it wasn't safe for her to ride her bike in the dark like that. But I was too late. She got hit by a car," I explained to him, a much more serious tone in my voice.

"Oh my gosh," he said. "I'm sorry, man. That sucks."

"Yeah it does. Up until quite recently, I thought Julia's death was my fault. That's why I tried to kill myself. I thought I deserved to die too. Why should I get to live a full life when I'm the reason my girlfriend is dead, you know?"

"What changed your mind?" he asked.

"Clare," I told him with a smile on my face. "She told me that it wasn't my fault and that I couldn't have possibly known that would happen. She also said that it was okay to regret the things I said, but I couldn't let that burden hang over my head for the rest of my life. She also introduced me to God."

"God? Eli, I don't want to talk about him," he told me.

"I was exactly the same way a few weeks ago, man. When Clare brought up God to me, I didn't want to hear it either. But eventually I realized that anything was better than trying to run my own life, so I decided to give it a shot, and I have not been disappointed."

"I've got too much baggage for that. If there was a God, he wouldn't want me," he said.

"Yeah, I thought so too, until Clare explained to me that none of that matters. You and I both have a lot of scars. We've been hurt, we've made some bad decisions, and we've thought that there was no one there to help us. But here's the thing: God loves us so much that he sent his only son to get crucified for us on that cross. He acquired scars so that we wouldn't have to hide ours. We don't have to hide them because God loves us no matter what we've done. Yes, scars may show what you've done, but they're not who you are. The only thing you are to Him is His child," I concluded.

"He took a moment to take in what I said, and then responded. "Okay, that sounds cool. But how do you know it's real?"

"How do you know air is real? You can't see it, but you believe in it anyways. Like today, for example: I saw you sitting on the stairwell and I thought nothing of it. Sure, I thought it was weird, but I just figured that was what you did and there wasn't any problem. When I was walking through the parking lot, I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach and the only thing that was going through my mind was that I needed to go back. I couldn't physically see God in front of me, or hear him speak with words, but I could feel Him calling me to you just the same."

"Really?" he questioned, flabbergasted.

"Really. Campbell, I can't tell you how you feel, but I can tell you that you were wrong earlier: you do have people who care about you here. You've got me, and if you decide to check out what I've been talking about, you've got Jesus. With Him, you are never alone," I explained.

He was silent for several minutes after that. I could see gears spinning around in his brain, taking in all that I said. During this time, I thanked God for the witnessing opportunity and for giving me the proper words to say. I prayed for Campbell, and I prayed that the words I said would have some sort of affect on him.

Eventually, he did speak up again. "Eli?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you told Clare? You know, about the scars?"

This made me think for a moment. I was being a hypocrite. I was telling him that he needed to let people in, when I hadn't done so myself. I knew Clare wasn't judgmental, but there was just this tiny fear in the back of my head that she would break up with me if she found out. I realized that I was being silly, and I answered Cam's question honestly.

"No. I haven't. But I'll tell mine if you tell yours?" I proposed.

He rolled his eyes to the top right corner of his vision, thought about it for a moment, and then responded with one simple word: "Deal." That was the first genuine smile I had seen on him all day.

We got up after that and walked to his host home. He was walking up the steps, and I was about to start heading to The Dot, when he spoke again.

"Hey, Eli?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks," he said with another smile.

"No problem," I told him, sporting a smile of my own. I began walking again, but when he shut his door, I turned back around and stared at his house for a few seconds. "Thank you, God," I said as I walked away. "Thank you."

**So that's it, guys. I really hope you enjoyed this story. Please review and tell me your opinions. Also, as always, if anyone has a personal matter he/she would like to discuss in private, he/she may PM me. I know I don't personally know you, but I will be here for you. Thank you to everyone and always remember, You've got me and Jesus :)**

**~You'veGotMeAndJesus **


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